We Fell Into a Burning Bowl of Fire

With all due apologies to Johnny Cash, we decided to make a wilderness hike into the Bowl of Fire. After too many hikes around Lake Mead where we've seen piles of garbage along the shoreline, it was time to go where there are no trails and the only footprints were our own.

The Bowl of Fire is a small valley of red sandstone mountains in the Muddy Mountain Wilderness Area near Lake Mead. 

There are no direct trails into the Bowl. You just set an eye line route and navigate cross country through the desert.

The great thing about back country hiking in the desert is that the lines of sight are so numerous it is almost impossible to get lost. Wander off course exploring in any direction and getting back on course is relatively easy. 

The Bowl of Fire keeps getting closer and closer.

Although the way across looks flat, we ended up crossing a few dozen washes along the way. This was one of the largest. Someone had managed to drive a jeep up this one. It was the only sign of other people we would see.

We finally came to a wash that took us into the Bowl.

Once inside the valley, we found many more washes to cross.

Once we reached the center of the valley, we picked out the largest wash leading into the red mountains and set off into it to see how far we could get into the Bowl. 

We've seen a lot of limestone deposits in sandstone formations before, but this spiderweb of lime was the most interesting yet.

We finally reached the end and found some interesting shades of green growing in the sandy spots in the cracks.

Making our way back out was as interesting as coming in. We crossed our own tracks a few times, but followed a different path out for the most part.

It was a pretty easy eight mile hike so we took the rest of the day to get the knuckleheads out for a swim in Lake Mead. We'll have to come back in the spring when it's warm enough for us to join them.

We did another "off the beaten track" very impressive slot canyon hike with some friends who were also boondocking near Lake Mead. Being a lazy blogger, I'll outsource the description of that hike. You can check out that hike at their blog Life's Little Adventures

A Bubble Begging for a Pin

With the market not sure what bad news would send it soaring today, here comes the Philly Fed to save the day by tumbling from October's 19.8 to a paltry 6.5, slamming through expectations of 15.0. This is the biggest miss since February and assures that ahead of today's POMO there is enough ammunition for a stock ramp to end the three days of declines. Since the economy is once again sliding on every possible banana peel, we can calmly go back to the "market" ramp.

The Fed has become masterful at blowing insane investment bubbles. Like all bubbles, they eventually burst (LTCM in the late 90's, 2000 Dot Com crash, 2006 Housing Market Crash, 2008 Leverage Crash). This time will be no different. For now, the Fed has managed to bypass the laws of rational finance. Who knows how far they can take it this time, but eventually you ignore fundamentals at your own peril. The Fed is already losing control of the bond market. I suspect we'll muddle through the holidays in a sideways to slightly up bias followed by a possible stock market reset happening sometime in conjunction with the next debt ceiling debate early in 2014. This could erase many months of gains in a few days. Is it really worth buying (or holding) at all time highs and trying to capture the last 3%-5% of upside in conditions like these? We'll soon know.

Our Own Boondocking Paradise (aka What Every Girl Wants for her Birthday)

We spent most of the Summer in Northern Idaho. This spot is close to the Canadian border and a day or less away from some of the prettiest areas of Western Montana, Eastern Washington, Northeast Oregon, British Columbia, Alberta, and, of course, Idaho. It also has the advantage of being in an agricultural area with a climate that allows for grape and stone fruit growing, has the largest hops farm in North America, boasts local providers of grass-fed beef and lamb, is host to plentiful wild game and trout fishing, and is surrounded by tens of millions of acres of mountainous public lands.

This fine boondocking site is on the last benchland above the Kootenay River Valley. It overlooks thousands of acres of farmland down to the river and has the Selkirk Mountains as a western backdrop. Other mountains nearby include the Purcell Range, the Cabinets, the Bitterroots, and the start of the Canadian Rockies.

Anyone who has camped through Northern Idaho and Western Montana knows it's difficult to find relatively flat land with good sun exposure for boondocking that isn't right next to a busy road, a railroad, or power lines. Most of the land up there is steep. Where there is a pass or a valley, the usual drill is to run a major road, a railroad, or power lines directly through it.

So we were pretty psyched when we found this spot with great early morning sun, brilliant sunsets, and, most importantly, no road noise, no train noise, and no power lines running through the scene.  As an added benefit, we have 15 GPM of pristine well water that filters through 300 feet of sand, stone and cracks in the pink granite. Since the location, climate, and neighbors are as good as it gets, we decided we had to buy it. Better yet, we closed on Susan's birthday making for a nice present.

One of our neighbors called the property "the Serengeti of Northern Idaho" because it is teeming with elk and deer. We've also seen mountain lion, bear and wolf tracks. We see a lot of game birds (grouse, pheasant, water fowl) including the local gang of prehistoric looking wild turkeys.

The land rolls over open bench tops and down into gullys that provide shelter for wildlife. It has a perfect mix of wide open vistas and cool forest groves. The forested areas are primarily Douglas Fir, Larch (aka Tamarack), and Ponderosa Pine. For diversity, there are groves of Cedar, White Pine, Aspen, and the occasional Junipers.

The larch is an interesting "pine" tree. It's actually a deciduous tree with pine needles that turn yellow and are shed each Fall.

The land was logged about 40 years ago and there are old logging skid trails throughout the property. Between these and the numerous game trails, we have miles of hiking, mountain biking, or even maybe cross country skiing....someday.

The reason we are spared from a railroad as a neighbor this close to the valley floor is that this spur of the Kootenay Valley Railroad was abandoned and removed in the early 1970's. The entire western boundary of the property, and our road into our boondocking site, is the old railroad bed. We'll need to improve about a half mile of this road into our boondocking site. If anyone wants to pay for the road improvements, naming rights to the road are still available. :-)

A small creek also empties into the valley at our property. This pretty little wetland was ravaged by cattle overgrazing. We plan to restore it and make it even better for wildlife. We're looking to coax the moose into coming back.

An historic old grain elevator is also on the property. It was built high above the tracks and was used by local farmers to load their grain onto the trains.

 

Our new boondocking spot had some access issues. We've roughed in a nice easy driveway incline and started a pad. After some rock is added next year, this will be ready for any size rig to park and maneuver in comfort.

Idaho is fun, but now it's time to move south again. As much as we love it up there, we're not ready to give up traveling fulltime just yet! 

It's Official: The US Goes Full-on George Costanza

The Seinfeld fans out there will remember the episode where George Costanza decided to just give up. Rather than watch his weight or care about his appearance, he decided to wear sweat pants all the time and skip other necessary hygienic activities. Well the US has just decided to stop shaving, bathing, and has purchased the largest pair of sweatpants the world has ever seen.

While we're all celebrating the end of the government shutdown, there is one bit of information that I haven't seen reported anywhere in the news. A provision (named the Default Prevention Act of 2013) is buried within the Continuing Appropriations Act of 2014 that gives the President the ability to unilaterally waive the debt ceiling limit.  Although Congress can override the President's move to lift the debt ceiling entirely, it would take a 2/3 majority in both Houses of Congress to block the action.  That just would not be possible for all practical purposes. Whether you are a Republican or Democrat (or, like me, have little use for either), this provision has chilling implications.

When I first saw the news that a deal had been reached, I spent time scouring the Internet to see if I could find out the new debt ceiling limit - i.e. how much more deficit spending could occur between now and February 7, the next drop-dead date.  I could not find any numbers.  Now I know why.

It looks to me, based on reading the Bill, that the Senate slipped the provision into the legislation at a late stage in the game, when they realized that the Republicans had caved in and the world was begging the government to avoid default.  I would bet a lot of money that most if not 90% of the Congressmen who voted "yes" on the Bill didn't even know that the provision was in there. 

In addition to this, there is no specified limitation on the amount of debt that can be issued between now and February 7th, when supposedly Congress reconvenes to vote on extending the debt ceiling limit.  But now it appears as if February 7th is a meaningless date. So now we have legislatively officially entered the realm of unlimited debt, unlimited QE, and interest rate and dollar instability.

In essence, while most people feel a sense of relief over the passage of the Bill enabling to government to pile on even more debt, the cold reality is that the legislation is a ticking time bomb for the U.S. dollar and it sets up the next stage of systemic collapse (or reset, choose your poison).

The truth is, the U.S. political and economic system is now akin to a runaway freight train in which the brakes have failed and it's headed toward a gorge where the bridge has collapsed. At this point, It would take a 30%-40% contraction in GDP to restore the annual budget to balance. Five years ago it would have taken a 20% GDP contraction. At the end of 1999, it would have required a 10% GDP contraction. As time goes on, we are accelerating more rapidly from a point where we could have fixed this problem with a minimum of pain. Our leaders have simply decided that it is better to just give up on fixing the problem and are hoping the charade lasts until they're retired and gone.

Tails from the Back Seat: Huckleberry Hounds

Dateline:  September 2013

Locale:  Far North Idaho

Activity:  Huckleberrying (a verb in these parts)

                   Huckleberry, the state fruit of Idaho 

So, off we went for what we thought was a normal romp in the woods but John and Susan had other plans.  They said that we couldn't, in good conscience, call ourselves North Idahoan dogs unless we experienced the Zen of picking huckleberries.  Not sure what that meant, but we were game!  As we climbed the trail to over 3,800 feet in elevation, we found the purple paradise: shrubs about 4 feet in height laden with small purplish berries that gave off a heavenly aroma and squirted juice when we jostled them with our noses...yummmmm!

Now you see them...soon you won't!

Since the season was just getting started, we didn't realize that these plants would be found in literally every alpine area in the Idaho Panhandle, along with deluges of migrant pickers/campers who infiltrate the area during this time of year; boondocking spots were at a premium.  We also got used to seeing huckleberry-filled coolers bungee-corded to every flat surface of the pickers' well-worn cars barely drivable under their own weight on the local backwoods roads. 

The Huckleberries of Wrath

Huckleberry picking can be lucrative, so it's not without competition.  Berry pickers are paid as much as $40 per 5-gallon container so it's not unusual that some can be viciously territorial about their picking spots, as if they were the only people around to have discovered it and now it's theirs and theirs only and of course it's where the finest perfect berries grow so there's no way they are going to share their precious secret place with amateurs, especially dogs!  And then there are the greedy pickers who use specially-designed rakes to "rake in" their fortunes... really quite unfair to us non-dexterous creatures, and to John and Susan too, who seemed to spend hours picking with nominal results (we think they ate as much as they picked!).  And of course there are the bears.  Huckleberries are a necessity for the region's black bears and grizzlies so they can be expected anywhere the berries are ripe.  They have flexible "prehensile lips" that can pick individual huckleberries without ingesting leaves faster than a person can harvest them; too bad they aren't trainable like us! 

Our first pick:
 certainly not going to supplement our income!

http://www.huckleberrypickers.com/

We think he likes the beer label too!

Huckleberries look like blueberries
but are more dense in texture and more tart in flavor.  Eating them makes your face flush and tongue tingle with the tons of antioxidants that explode in your mouth; their medicinal properties are numerous. In World War II, some pilots claimed eating huckleberry jam improved their night vision and today they are used to treat and prevent various health issues such as diabetes and urinary tract infections. Good thing for John since his favorite use for huckleberries is Huckleberry Beer!



Prime picking season is August, but the season extends as late as October. Perhaps we will venture out again, it's not easy work, but the rewards are tasty!

"Sweet" Dreams......